I herd this story on another forum a while back. Maybe a decade ago. It was just after I had realized Amazon sent me a used DVD instead of a new one, the first time I noticed that happened, although reexamining earlier DVD sets I had bought from them, it appears they ad been getting away with it for a while without me noticing. But at the time I noticed a DVD was used for the first time, I assumed it had to be some sort of mistake. Then I mentioned it on another forum and got responses from many other film collectors complaining they also received used DVDs they had to return to Best Buy, K-Mart, Borders and Barnes & Noble. At the time Barnes & Noble seemed to be the worst offender. And someone told this story:
He ordered a collectors box set for the first Spiderman film. When he opened it, he noticed that some of the collectables that were suppose to be in there were missing. A reprint of Amazing Fantasy which was supposed to be sealed in a plastic bag wasn't. Neither DVD in the set was factory sealed. And he began to notice the box for the set itself had a lot of scuffs on it. He realized he had been sent a used copy. So he complained to Barnes & Noble, and they asked for it to be returned. Deciding he didn't want Barnes & Noble to try to sell it to someone else less suspecting, he put a note in the box stating "If you had ordered a new factory sealed set, please note that this set has been opened and used, and some of the memorabilia is missing, and demand Barnes & Noble refund you immediately!" So he sent it back, and after a week Barnes & Noble confirmed they got the return and began to process a replacement set. They also apologized for the mistake, and assured him they would do a full investigation. So the replacement set came, and he opened it up, and guess what he found it? His note!
I think of that story a lot whenever I have to return used items to Amazon. And today as well. Several times I had ordered and returned the Monty Python Norwegian Blu-ray set for being used. About six or so times I had to return a set. The last one was utterly ruined on the inside of the box. Apparently whoever had the set decided to rip the box apart to get the discs out instead of carefully removing it from the display. Just basically destroying the entire collectable box. I was told the problem came from one of the distributors who apparently flooded the market with used and region locked discs, and that distributor was blacklisted, and the next set I got would definitely be factory new. It was shipped over night, but then ended up stuck in Pittsburg for an entire month. I am not sure what the problem was. But yesterday it arrived in New Jersey, then today ended up on my doorstep. So I opened it up, and immediately could tell the set had been used by the shoddy way the plastic bag had been reattached. Opened it up, and sure enough the individual season boxes had some wear and ding damage. Just enough to return the set. I am not going to spend over $100 for a collectors set and not get it in mint condition.
And so the saga continues.